How to Make Money with Python: 7 Tried-and-Tested Ways

Are you a Python programmer who is not making enough money with your coding skills? You’re not alone. Many talented Python programmers aren’t leveraging their skills to earn money. Often, they learn the syntax of the language but don’t apply it to create value. You don’t want to fall into that category, do you? In this article, we’ll explore 7 proven ways to monetize your Python programming skills.

With the rising demand for Python programmers and the shift of businesses online, various opportunities to make money with Python have emerged. Don’t worry, we’ll discuss the best conventional and lesser-known methods to make money using Python.

How to make money with Python? You can make money with Python programming skills in the following ways.

1. Get a Developer Job
2. Create a StartUp
3. Freelancing
4. Teach Coding Online
5. Create a YouTube channel and Monetize it
6. Create a Blog and Monetize it
7. Join Coding Contests

Let’s discuss each one of these methods in detail.

1. Get a Developer Job

If you are a good Python programmer, you can find a developer job at a company even if you do not have a degree or certification. There are many companies that hire programmers based on Computer Science degrees and there are others as well who don’t measure your skills based on degrees and certifications.

However, learning the syntax of a programming language is not enough to get a developer job. From my experience, I can say that finding a job is not difficult if you have done some good quality projects with Python.

You must have a portfolio that shows all the projects that you have done. You can use platforms like GitHub or GitLab to upload your code online. A better option is to create a portfolio website by yourself to showcase your skills there.

Also, the other thing you need to do is to market yourself as a Python programmer. You need to make sure that the person who is interviewing you must get an idea about your skills. 

For example, you can write articles, tutorials or create a YouTube channel to get your name out there. These things can increase your chances of hiring.

At $116,379 per year, Python developers are the best-paid software engineers in the United States. It is one of the most in-demand technology across various countries.

The government, particularly military cyber teams, and other major organizations use Python extensively and the pay is very good.

With the booming of artificial intelligence and machine learning, a lot more job vacancies are emerging for skilled Python programmers.

To find career opportunities, you can go to your favorite company’s website and check the ‘careers’ page. You can apply there for the positions you like.

2. Create a Startup

If you are a very skilled Python programmer, you can consider building your own startup. To build a startup, you need to find a burning problem that has chances of making money and solve that problem using your Python skills. 

For example, you can create a web application or mobile application that can classify images of the eyes of a person that check whether that person has any eye-related diseases or not.

Similarly, you can think of a lot of ideas. However, ideas are cheap. The important thing is the implementation of those ideas.

The YouTuber Siraj Raval has amazing videos about creating startups with Python and artificial intelligence. Here is a link to one of his AI startup videos. You can check his YouTube channel for more similar videos.

However,  creating a startup alone is not a piece of cake. You need great programming and marketing skills to build a successful startup.

It will be easy if you can create a startup with the company of some of your friends or you can look to join an existing startup company.

3. Freelancing

Freelancer is a term commonly used for a person who is self-employed. You can become a Python freelancer and earn a living from that. 

You can take projects from local clients and work as a consultant or you can work as a freelancer using online platforms. There are various platforms available for doing freelancing like Upwork and Freelancer.

You can go to these websites and create an attractive profile. You can find several clients and projects from these platforms. A person having a great profile or portfolio can find jobs very easily.

You can look for jobs on some social media as well like Facebook groups, LinkedIn, sub-reddits of Reddit, etc.

Python freelance programmers earn normally 106,905 USD per annum (according to the recent surveys), that is, around 51$ per hour.

If you want to become a Python freelancer, I will highly recommend you to check out the CleverProgrammer website and its YouTube channel, which is owned by Rafeh Qazi. He is a cool guy who teaches freelancing with Python in a fun and engaging manner. 

Also, Brad Hussey’s Freelancing Freedom will be also helpful in your freelancing journey.

4. Teach Coding Online

If you are not an experienced Python developer and you are finding it difficult to get your first freelancing client, then you can try teaching Python online.

In this case, you don’t want to be an expert or you don’t need a portfolio of tons of projects. You can teach whatever you know to the people who don’t know about that topic.

 In many cases, you don’t need to be an expert coder to become an expert teacher. Sometimes, a person who just recently studied the syntax of Python can teach a beginner far better than an expert. Because the former can understand the mindset of the beginner and he can relate to that person in a better way.

There are many people who are looking to learn even the bare minimum basics of the language. You can find those people and teach them via a video conference or you can meet them in person if you wish.

You can find clients for teaching at popular platforms like Wyzant and TakeLessons. You can go there and sign up to become a tutor. You can charge your clients just like freelancers for an hourly rate.

Also, you can create courses for online learning platforms like PluralSight or Udemy.

There are always instructor positions available, especially with high schools and bootcamps. Nowadays, most colleges are choosing Python as the introductory programming language to teach their students.

By teaching coding to others, you will eventually learn and improve a lot. You can add your work experience with your clients to your portfolio and gradually your portfolio will become rich. This will also lead you to get more freelancing clients.

5. Create a YouTube Channel

You can create a YouTube channel and create some helpful video tutorials on Python. Consistently creating videos for the channel will improve your video quality, your knowledge, and the number of audiences.

Most people going through this route quits too early before they achieve an exponential growth curve. So, the key is to consistently add quality helpful content to help your audience.

Once you have a certain amount of subscribers, you can monetize your videos with advertisements or affiliate products. You can also create some kind of digital information products and sell them to your audience.

The Python Programmer and CleverProgrammer are my favorite YouTube channels that produce Python-related content.

You can also create a similar YouTube channel to make money. This will also make you more popular and your chances of getting a job will be more.

6. Create a Blog

Just like a YouTube channel, you can also create a blog. The difference is that the content is more text-based. Pythonista Planet is an example of a Python blog.

For creating a blog or website, you don’t need to code the entire website. You can use popular platforms like WordPress to create your blog. There are plenty of themes and plugins available in WordPress that can make your life very easy.

You have to create a lot of helpful articles and tutorials in order to build a great audience. However, it will take a lot of time (generally, more than a year) to build an audience.

Once you build a huge audience, you can monetize your website with ads and affiliate marketing. Also, you can create a digital product like an ebook or a video course and sell it on your website.

7. Join Coding Contests

You can make money by joining coding contests or hackathons and winning them. You can find many such contests in the colleges in your area or you can look for them online.

Some of the online platforms that conduct coding contests are HackerRank, TopCoder, HackerEarth, CodeChef, CodeWars, etc. You can search for ‘online coding competitions’ and you can find plenty of them on the Internet.

Final Thoughts

If you have Python skills under your belt, there are many ways to make money out of it. You can use any of the six methods that I have mentioned in this article.

Some of you reading this article might be beginners without much knowledge about Python. In that case, I would suggest you take a Udemy course for a couple of bucks to master Python. You can also learn how to teach Python from the instructors. I’ve compiled a list of the best & inexpensive Python courses available on Udemy. Check out this list and choose the course that suits you.

There are many other ways to make money from Python. If you know any of them that I have not mentioned here, feel free to let me know in the comments section down below.

Also, if you have any queries or doubts, you can ask them in the comments and I will be happy to help you. 

Thanks for reading. Happy coding!